THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. I think you're going to find
this to be a really interesting discussion about how federal, state and
local authorities are working hard to prevent a terrorist attack.
That's what we're here to talk about -- and why it's important for
those of us in positions of authority to give federal, state and local
authorities all the tools necessary to do the job we expect of them.
That's what we're here to talk about. But I've got some things I want
to say before we start talking about it.

First, I am glad to be at the home of the mighty Buffalo Bills.
(Applause.) I traveled today with Congressman Quinn and Congressman
Reynolds, two fine members of the United States Congress from this
area, who assured me this is the year. (Laughter.) I want to thank
Jack and Tom for coming today. Thank you for your strong leadership.
Thanks for caring a lot about the people of the Buffalo, New York
area. Thanks for your steadfast concern about the security of our
country. I appreciate your service.

I also appreciate the service of the really fine Governor of the
state of New York, George Pataki. Thanks for coming. (Applause.) I
know we've got state and local authorities who are here. I appreciate
your service. For the local authorities, my only advice is make sure
you fill the potholes. (Laughter.) Empty the garbage. (Laughter.)
Answer the phone calls.

But thanks for coming today. This message today is aimed as much
at you as it is anybody else. Today, we have got an interesting -- a
lot of families with us, but one that struck me as worthy of note, and
that's the Conroy family. Where's Peggy Conroy? Somewhere. There she
is. Good. Hi, Peggy. Thanks. The reason I brought up Peggy is I
want you to know that Peggy's husband is a Staff Sergeant in the
National Guard, the 105th Military Police Unit in Karbala, Iraq. She
represents many of the families of this area and the country who are
sacrificing to see to it that the world is more free and more
peaceful.

I appreciate so very much your steadfast love for your husband.
You honor us with your presence today, and I'm really glad you brought
Billy and Jeff and Tyler. Billy and Jeff really represent the greatest
spirit of our country. Not only do they love their dad, and pray for
their dad, but they're collecting school supplies for the Iraqi
children. In other words, they're going to their own schoolmates and
saying, how best can we not only help secure Iraq, so it can become a
free country, how best can we show the compassion of America. And I
want to thank you guys for honoring your dad and honoring our country.
(Applause.)

I also met a fellow named Frank Brusino. Where are you, Frank?
There he is. Frank is an interesting character. (Laughter.) He is a
retired brigadier general in the Army Reserves, a paratrooper, who is
now very much involved with the Senior Corps, the Citizen Corps
Council. In other words, their job is to help provide law enforcement
with additional volunteers so law enforcement can better do its job.
For the first responders who are here, I think you know the valuable
addition that Citizen Corps Councils have made, so you can do your work
better.

The reason I bring up Frank is, a lot of times they talk about the
strength of America as being in our military. That's part of our
strength and we're going to keep the military strong, by the way, so
the world will be more peaceful. (Applause.) They talk about the
strength of our country being the fact that we're a prosperous nation,
and we need to make sure we continue to expand prosperity so people can
find work. But the true strength of the country lies in the hearts and
souls of our citizens. See, Frank represents the strength of America
because he volunteers to make the community in which he lives a better
place. He sets such a great example for other citizens in this area.
That's why I wanted to herald Frank's accomplishments. He is a soldier
in the army of compassion. He takes time out of his life to see what
he can do to make the Buffalo area more secure.

My call to people in this area is see what you can do to make
Buffalo a more compassionate, decent place. See, societies change one
conscience, one soul a time. All it takes is for citizens to hear that
universal call to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved
yourself, and mentor a child, or feed the hungry, or provide shelter
for the homeless, or love the lonely. And by doing so, you serve our
nation, and you really show the world the true compassion of a great
nation.

September the 11th was a horrible day for our nation, and we must
never forget the lessons of September the 11th. I appreciate so very
much the Governor's steadfast determination and compassion during those
difficult times for the citizens of New York City and New York state
and New Jersey and Connecticut. It's a time that really changed our
perspective about the world. See, we never really thought America
would be a battlefield. We thought oceans would protect us. That was
kind of the conventional wisdom of the time. And therefore, our
defenses were aligned that way, our offenses were aligned that way.

As Larry mentioned, there were threats, but most of those threats
were overseas, and they attacked us overseas. But never did we dream
that they would use our own airplanes as weapons to fly, and
mercilessly kill thousands of our citizens. From that day forward, we
have changed our attitude, and we've got to make sure the laws reflect
the realities of the generation -- of the new generation, of the
generation of those of us involved with being responsible for the
security of the country.

See, we're now facing the first war of the 21st century. It's a
different kind of war. Frank was a paratrooper. In those days you
could measure the enemy by the number of battalions and number of tanks
and number of airplanes. Now the enemy hides in caves. They lurch
(sio) in the shadows of the world. They will strike and kill innocent
citizens without any conscience, because they have no conscience.

So the fundamental charge before us all in positions of
responsibility is, how do we deal with the threat? The first thing we
do is we stay on the offense. The first thing we do is we find killers
before they kill us. We rally the world, which have done and will
continue to do, to cut off money, to share intelligence, to put brave
troops and security personnel after these people, to find them, to rout
them out. The message should be clear to them, there is no cave or
hole deep enough to hide from the justice of the United States of
America and our coalition partners. It's essential -- (applause.)

September the 11th -- when the President says something, he better
mean it. See, in order to make the world more peaceful, it's essential
that those of us in positions of high responsibility speak clearly and
mean what we say. And so when I say that if you harbor a terrorist
you're just as guilty as a terrorist, I meant it. And we acted upon
that, in order to make the world more peaceful and more secure. The
Taliban found out what we meant. Remember, those were the leaders in
Afghanistan that provided safe haven and training camps for al Qaeda.
And fortunately, thanks to our coalition, thanks to brave soldiers from
America, and others, the Taliban no longer is in power. We enforced
the doctrine. The world is more peaceful because the Taliban is gone.
And at the same time, please remember, the women and children in
Afghanistan have a much brighter future because we removed a barbaric
regime that refused to even educate young girls.

When the President speaks, he better mean it. And when I went in
front of the United Nations Security Council, in the fall of 2002, I
said, listen, we all have seen a threat. One of the lessons of
September the 11th, was when you see a threat overseas, you must act
before it materializes. September the 11th said, we can't wait and
hope on the good intentions of terrorists who will kill innocent men
and women. We've got to act. We can't hope for the best anymore. The
United States must use our prestige and influence and diplomatic power
and military power to protect us and others who love freedom.

I went in front of the United Nations Security Council, having
looked at intelligence that said Saddam Hussein was a threat. The
Congress looked at the same intelligence, by the way, and concluded
Saddam was a threat. The United Nations Security Council looked at the
intelligence and said Saddam was a threat. No wonder we thought he was
a threat; after all, he had used weapons of mass destruction on his own
people. Not only the intelligence lead us to believe that, but his
actions led us to believe it. He paid for suiciders; he harbored
terrorists; he was paying for terrorists to kill.

And so we saw a threat. September the 11th changed the equation.
So I was given a choice: Either trust the word of a madman, hope for
the best with somebody who was a tyrant, or take action to defend our
country. Given that choice, I will defend America every time.
(Applause.)

It's hard work to go from a system where there was torture and rape
rooms and mass graves to freedom. That's hard work. But it is
necessary work. That's why I want to herald the work and sacrifice of
your husband. It's important work for our future. Free societies are
peaceful societies. The way to defeat terror in the long run is to
provide hope, to provide hope for families, to provide hope for
children, to say that there's a bright future for you. That won't
happen, so long as there's tyranny in a part of the world that tends to
breed hatred. It will happen when societies become democratic and
free.

And so what we're doing right now is we're defeating the enemy
there so we won't have to fight them here. But, as well, we're working
for freedom in the heart of a part of the world that needs freedom.
You know, I can't tell you how strongly I believe that -- about the
power of freedom. After all, it's been a part of our national soul.
We have proven how powerful freedom can be. We bring people from
diverse backgrounds together under the mantel of a free society. We're
such a beacon.

I believe freedom is not America's gift to the world; I believe
freedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and women in this
world. And therefore, as we work to not only make the homeland more
secure, we work to spread freedom, which will make the world more
peaceful. The enemy can't stand the thought of free societies. That's
why they attacked us, see. And we're not going to change. That's what
they don't understand. There's nothing they can do to intimidate, to
make us change our deepest belief.

We live in historic times. We face a different kind of war. And
one of the key victories in this battle against terror is going to be
the spread of freedom throughout the greater Middle East. And we'll
succeed. We'll succeed because, deep in the heart of every human being
is the deep desire to be free.

At home, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work to
do. We're a freedom nation, we're a big nation, people come and go.
And we needed to change the whole attitude about how we protect the
homeland. We'll do everything we can to stay on the offensive. But
just remember, we've got to be right 100 percent of the time; and the
enemy has only got to be right once. And so we've got a tough job.

It means we've got to coordinate between the federal government and
the state government and the local government like never before. We've
got to share information on a real-time basis, so first responders and
police chiefs can move as quickly as possible. We're going to talk
about that communication today.

We created the Department of Homeland Security which would allow us
to better coordinate between agencies. It's kind of -- what happens in
bureaucracies is you get what they call stovepipes -- in other words,
people don't talk to each other, they kind of stay in their own lane,
and they don't share information across the lanes, and therefore, vital
information may show up, but it's not widely disseminated so there's
not real-time action on, say, a threat.

Part of the problem we face was that there was laws and
bureaucratic mind-sets that prevented the sharing of information. And
so, besides setting up the Homeland Security Department and beefing up
our air travel security, and making sure that we now fingerprint at the
borders and take those fingerprints, by the way, and compare to a
master log of fingerprints of terrorists and known criminals, to make
sure people coming into our country are the right people coming into
our country. I mean, we do a lot of things. But we change law, as
well, to allow the FBI and -- to be able to share information within
the FBI.

Incredibly enough, because of -- which Larry and others will
discuss -- see, I'm not a lawyer, so it's kind of hard for me to kind
of get bogged down in the law. (Applause.) I'm not going to play like
one, either. (Laughter.) The way I viewed it, if I can just put it in
simple terms, is that one part of the FBI couldn't tell the other part
of the FBI vital information because of law. And the CIA and the FBI
couldn't talk. Now, these are people charged with gathering
information about threats to the country; yet they couldn't share the
information. And right after September the 11th, the Congress wisely
acted, said, this doesn't make any sense. If we can't get people
talking, how can we act? We're charged with the security of the
country, first responders are charged with the security of the country,
and if we can't share information between vital agencies, we're not
going to be able to do our job. And they acted.

So the first thing I want you to think about is, when you hear
Patriot Act, is that we changed the law and the bureaucratic mind-set
to allow for the sharing of information. It's vital. And others will
describe what that means.

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the
way, any time you hear the United States government talking about
wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has
changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,
we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's
important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot
Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what
is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the
Constitution.

But a roving wiretap means -- it was primarily used for drug
lords. A guy, a pretty intelligence drug lord would have a phone, and
in old days they could just get a tap on that phone. So guess what
he'd do? He'd get him another phone, particularly with the advent of
the cell phones. And so he'd start changing cell phones, which made it
hard for our DEA types to listen, to run down these guys polluting our
streets. And that changed, the law changed on -- roving wiretaps were
available for chasing down drug lords. They weren't available for
chasing down terrorists, see? And that didn't make any sense in the
post-9/11 era. If we couldn't use a tool that we're using against
mobsters on terrorists, something needed to happen.

The Patriot Act changed that. So with court order, law enforcement
officials can now use what's called roving wiretaps, which will prevent
a terrorist from switching cell phones in order to get a message out to
one of his buddies.

Thirdly, to give you an example of what we're talking about,
there's something called delayed notification warrants. Those are very
important. I see some people, first responders nodding their heads
about what they mean. These are a common tool used to catch mobsters.
In other words, it allows people to collect data before everybody is
aware of what's going on. It requires a court order. It requires
protection under the law. We couldn't use these against terrorists,
but we could use against gangs.

We had real problems chasing paper -- following paper trails of
people. The law was just such that we could run down a problem for a
crooked businessman; we couldn't use the same tools necessary to chase
down a terrorist. That doesn't make any sense. And sometimes the use
of paper trails and paper will lead local first responders and local
officials to a potential terrorist. We're going to have every tool, is
what I'm telling you, available for our people who I expect to do their
job, and you expect to do their jobs.

We had tough penalties for drug traffickers; we didn't have as
tough a penalty for terrorists. That didn't make any sense. The true
threat to the 21st century is the fact somebody is trying to come back
into our country and hurt us. And we ought to be able to at least send
a signal through law that says we're going to treat you equally as
tough as we do mobsters and drug lords.

There's other things we need to do. We need administrative
subpoenas in the law. This was not a part of the recent Patriot Act.
By the way, the reason I bring up the Patriot Act, it's set to expire
next year. I'm starting a campaign to make it clear to members of
Congress it shouldn't expire. It shouldn't expire, for the security of
our country. (Applause.)

Administrative subpoenas mean it is -- speeds up the process
whereby people can gain information to go after terrorists.
Administrative subpoenas I guess is kind of an ominous sounding word,
but it is, to put everybody's mind at ease about administrative
subpoenas -- we use them to catch crooked doctors today. It's a tool
for people to chase down medical fraud. And it certainly makes sense
to me that if we're using it as a tool to chase medical fraud cases, we
certainly ought to use it as a tool to chase potential terrorists.

I'll tell you another interesting part of the law that needs to be
changed. Judges need greater authority to deny bail to terrorists.
Judges have that authority in many cases like -- again, I keep citing
drug offenses, but the Congress got tough on drug offenders a while ago
and gave judges leeway to deny bail. They don't have that same
authority to deny bail to terrorists now. I've got to tell you, it
doesn't make any sense to me that it is very conceivable that we haul
in somebody who is dangerous to America and then they are able to
spring bail and out they go.

It's hard to assure the American people that we've given tools to
law enforcement that they need if somebody has gone through all the
work to chase down a potential terrorist, and they haul them in front
of a court and they pay bail, and it adios. It just doesn't make any
sense.

The Patriot Act needs to be renewed and the Patriot Act needs to be
enhanced. That's what we're talking about. And it's better for others
to explain to you how this Patriot Act works. After all, they're
charged with protecting our citizens. They're on the front line. You
see, I try to pick the best I can at the federal government and say,
here's our mission -- our mission is to protect our country. I say
that to the Defense Department -- our mission is to protect the
country. I say it to the Justice Department, and to the FBI. After
9/11, I said to the Justice Department and the FBI, your job, your
primary focus now is to prevent attack. Listen, I still want you
chasing down the criminals; that's what's expected of you. But there's
a new mind-set, and that is, because of what happened on 9/11, we've
got to change the way we think, and therefore, your job now is to
prevent attack.

And one of the first persons I told that to was Thompson. See,
when they say, Deputy Attorney General, it means he's the number two
guy at the Justice Department. He's the chief -- he was the chief
operating officer of the Justice Department. He was there when he
heard the command given that we're at war; I want everybody at home
doing everything we can to protect us, and you're job now is to
prevent, do what you can do.

And so -- Larry, we miss you over there, and don't get too
comfortable. (Applause.) He's living in Atlanta. He's living in
Atlanta, Georgia. Actually, when he left he said, you know, I've got
some kids to raise. I love that spirit, by the way. I love the fact
that a dad puts his family first. And that's a vital part of life,
isn't it? And so, he did a heck of a good job. He's also doing a very
good job as his most important responsibility, which is to be a loving
dad.

But I appreciate you coming up. Why don't you just say what you
want to say -- now that you're no longer in government. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Let me stop you right there. I hope the average
citizen sees the dilemma. You've got people working on the criminal
case, moving along, and they say, we've got a problem with these guys.
And all of a sudden, the other side of the building says, they may be
involved with a plot related to terrorism. And yet, they can't talk?

Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) They could talk about Buffalo
Bills football, but they couldn't talk about securing the homeland.

MR. BATTLE: I couldn't have said it better myself. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Now, let me ask you something, Mike. First of all,
congratulations.

MR. BATTLE: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: We put you in there because we want you to get them
and lock them up if they're harmful to America. (Laughter.) But let
me ask you something; talk about the -- (Applause.) You did a good
job. We're about to go to Pete Ahearn, of the FBI, but I wanted to ask
you a question on the bail proceedings. Do you have any thoughts --
it's kind of a leading question, of course -- (laughter.) I'm not even
a lawyer. Anyway -- (laughter.) Tell me about the bail proceedings
with those that you arrested.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate you, Mike. Good job.

MR. BATTLE: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Pete Hearn is with us, with the FBI. Pete, why
don't you share with us what -- what it was like not to talk somebody?
No. (Laughter.)

Let me -- let me say something about the FBI. Pete's boss is Bob
Mueller. He's now the Director of the FBI. Mueller is doing a
fabulous job. He is a -- he comes to my office nearly every morning.
He sits down and brings me up to date on what the FBI is doing. What's
really interesting is to follow some of the cases -- we followed this
case -- to see how hard our agents are working, how close the
coordination is. And I really want to thank you for being on the front
line of doing really incredibly important work to protect the American
people.

* * * * *

AGENT AHEARN: First off, Mr. President, people have to realize --
and it's not just with the FBI or our Joint Terrorism Task Force, but
so many in this room have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution
of this country. The Patriot Act is a law; the Patriot Act has the
judicial oversight. The rules are there; we follow the rules. The
last time I checked, the terrorists don't have the rules that we have
and don't have to play by them.

So when you're dealing with a situation like this, and you have all
the pieces of the puzzle and parts of the puzzle in one room, parts in
another -- we were at the time probably one of the first FBI offices
applying the new Patriot Act during the outset of this investigation.

The other issue, the information that we received -- and it wasn't
just issues with the six individuals in Lackawanna, it was the
information we were able to glean that we were able to pass to our
counterparts, for example, in the CIA. It's just not -- it did not
just deal with here. It was incumbent on us to take that information
and everything we had -- not just maybe some phone numbers that we got
from the criminal side of the case, or phone numbers that we got from
the intelligence side of the case.

Even after the Lackawanna case, the Patriot Act provisions helped
us. We were able to share the intelligence from the -- intelligence
from the grand jury, the information that we had there, and pass it to
the intel community that led to many other things that were part of
this investigation that were overseas. So it was not just the cell
right here --

THE PRESIDENT: Right. Some of the people in the cell here
actually were traveling overseas, as I recall. We got a couple of them
overseas, isn't that right?

AGENT AHEARN: Yes, sir. Yes, we did.

THE PRESIDENT: Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. (Laughter and
applause.)

The point is, is that -- what he's telling you is, is that we
needed to share this information throughout our government, which we
couldn't do before. And it just doesn't make any sense. We got people
working hard overseas that are collecting information to better help us
protect ourselves. And what 9/11 was, is that -- said -- is that a
threat overseas now must be taken seriously here at home. It's one
thing to protect our embassies, and we work hard to do so. But now a
threat overseas could end up being a threat to the homeland. And in
order to protect the homeland, these good people have got to be able to
share information.

Those who criticize the Patriot Act must listen to those folks on
the front line of defending America. The Patriot Act defends our
liberty, is what it does, under the Constitution of the United States.
(Applause.)

AGENT AHEARN: Prior to the Patriot Act, it is true, and no pun
intended, but we were fighting with one arm tied behind our back. It
was clear. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it looks like you still are. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Joint Terrorism Task Force -- you might tell the
folks what that means.

AGENT AHEARN: Well, clearly, the JTTF is an acronym, obviously,
for the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Prior to 9/11 there were about 28
of them in the United States. We, here in Buffalo, had already
established and put the paperwork in for one prior to 9/11. It was the
first one approved. And it brings to the table more resources that I
can, as the FBI Director here - to put into the battle in the war on
terrorism.

THE PRESIDENT: And who sits around the table -- Joint Terrorism
Task Force? FBI agents, U.S. attorneys, local?

AGENT AHEARN: I'm sure you're going to hear more about that with
the gentlemen here, but they all sit around and --

THE PRESIDENT: That's what I'm leading into.

AGENT AHEARN: No, it was a good segue. (Laughter.) There are no
secrets. I mean, everybody that is cleared and is part of the
investigation, they see it all.

THE PRESIDENT: Right. This is a good segue, as we say, to
federal, state and local cooperation. It is -- in order for us to do
our jobs, we've got to make sure that the federal government shares
information with the state government, and vice versa, and that the
state and federal government share information with the local
government, vice versa. So that everybody is knitted up, as we say.
And that wasn't the case before September the 11th in a lot of
communities.

One of the knitter-uppers is Jim McMahon, who was appointed by the
Governor. I appreciate your service. Let her go.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: What dawned on me when Jim was talking is that we
do the same thing, by the way, for federal emergency response. We've
done a better job of coordinating FEMA, for example, which is -- means
Federal Emergency Management Association. But it's now part of the
Homeland Security Department. And we better coordinate with state and
local authorities. So not only are we doing -- coordinating activities
when it comes to fighting terrorists, but we're doing so when it comes
to responding to emergencies, as well.

I appreciate the first responders who are here. I know New York
has got fantastic first responders. Obviously, those who rushed into
burning towers set the highest of high standards for courage and
bravery, and really serve as great inspiration for others who wear the
uniform, as well as those of us who appreciate those who wear the
uniform.

Speaking about wearing a uniform, one man wore one today, and that
would be Chief Moslow. Thank you for coming, sir. We're honored
you're here.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: See, Thompson whispered, he said, "We've only got
13,000 FBI agents." That is -- when you think about it -- across the
country, that's not a lot of FBI agents, is it? So, therefore, there
needs to be cooperation.

I appreciate you, Chief. You represent those on the front lines,
what we call the first responders. The federal government is spending
some money to help. The key is to make sure we get it to you so it
doesn't get stuck in different bureaucracies, which is one of the
challenges those of us in government face, which is not getting stuck
in bureaucracies. But I want to thank you, and I want to thank the men
and women from this area who are on the front lines, for doing
everything in your power to uphold the oath to which you swore when you
became a uniformed officer. (Applause.)

Here's what I think: I think that the world is going to be more
peaceful and free. I think America is now more secure; and we're
working to make it even more secure. There is no doubt in my mind that
this country can not (sic) achieve any objective we put our mind to.
It's essential we remain steadfast and strong, and courageous and
determined. History has called us to this moment of time. And history
has called the right nation to lead. And the reason I can say that
with certainty is because I understand the character and the courage of
the American people.

It's an honor to have been here today. I hope, as a result of this
discussion, our fellow citizens have a better understanding of the
importance of the Patriot Act and why it needs to be renewed and
expanded -- the importance of the Patriot Act, when it comes to
defending America, our liberties, and at the same time, that it still
protects our liberties under the Constitution. But more importantly, I
hope our fellow citizens recognize that there are hundreds of their
fellow citizens working on a daily basis to do their duty to make this
country as secure as possible. And for your work I say thank you, and
may God continue to bless you. Thank you for coming. (Applause.)